Typical Symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Not everyone gets rheumatoid arthritis.
But if you are a woman between the age of forty and sixty, you feel depressed, lose appetite and have regular tender, painful and swollen joints worsen by movement, you need to see your doctor because these are clear symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
Other areas of the body affected by the disease include the backbone, shoulder, ankle and hip.
This type of arthritis occurs two to three times more often in women.
Although the central cause of the disease is still unknown, it occurs when the body's protection machinery loses its ability to tell between the familiar tissues in the joints and unfamiliar tissues.
This leads to the breakdown of bones within the joints causing typical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis which are pain, swelling and stiffness of the small joints of the hands and feet.
The number of joints affected depends on the severity of the disease and individual differences.
Because of the stiffness in the joints, patients find it very difficult to do up buttons while dressing and even to hold spoons while eating.
What differentiates symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis from every other symptoms of arthritis is the fact that if a joint on one side of the body is involved, the same joint on the other side of the body is usually affected.
If treatment is not started within the first six months of appearance of the symptoms of the illness, irreversible joint damage occurs and the rate of damage appears to be greatest during the first year.
Rheumatoid arthritis used to invoke terrible pictures of patients in wheelchairs, laid up by the disease and living the rest of their lives limited by the pain of the illness.
This notion has been proven to be untrue as patients now lead a near normal life due to improved method of management of symptoms, physiotherapy and of course early identification.
But if you are a woman between the age of forty and sixty, you feel depressed, lose appetite and have regular tender, painful and swollen joints worsen by movement, you need to see your doctor because these are clear symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
Other areas of the body affected by the disease include the backbone, shoulder, ankle and hip.
This type of arthritis occurs two to three times more often in women.
Although the central cause of the disease is still unknown, it occurs when the body's protection machinery loses its ability to tell between the familiar tissues in the joints and unfamiliar tissues.
This leads to the breakdown of bones within the joints causing typical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis which are pain, swelling and stiffness of the small joints of the hands and feet.
The number of joints affected depends on the severity of the disease and individual differences.
Because of the stiffness in the joints, patients find it very difficult to do up buttons while dressing and even to hold spoons while eating.
What differentiates symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis from every other symptoms of arthritis is the fact that if a joint on one side of the body is involved, the same joint on the other side of the body is usually affected.
If treatment is not started within the first six months of appearance of the symptoms of the illness, irreversible joint damage occurs and the rate of damage appears to be greatest during the first year.
Rheumatoid arthritis used to invoke terrible pictures of patients in wheelchairs, laid up by the disease and living the rest of their lives limited by the pain of the illness.
This notion has been proven to be untrue as patients now lead a near normal life due to improved method of management of symptoms, physiotherapy and of course early identification.
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